Santa Barbara 
Her milk-turned-artisan-cheddar was being served on the spectacular coastal-view dining terrace, although hotel cow Ellie was 200 miles away on her Visalia farm getting a hoof pedicure for a photo shoot. n In times past — like when stars from Clark Gable to Barbra Streisand overnighted at El Encanto — there wasn’t a long-lashed celebrity Holstein contributing to the culinary menu (Ellie’s Silver Mountain Aged Cheddar with fresh fig and cream of balsamic). That’s because the 1918-launched iconic El Encanto just reopened after a seven-year closure and novel $134 million makeover (on-staff moo-er included).

You can still order the fabled Floating Island, a rich meringue-and-crème-anglaise French dessert that debuted at the hilltop hideaway in 1920. But you can also deliciously lounge around the new sparkling infinity pool while sipping the specialty Rocket Gimlet made with “arugula from chef’s garden” and dreamily staring off at fog rolling in on the Channel Islands.

“Oh my goodness! Oh my goodness! Where else are you going to find this kind of view — it’s like Menton in the south of France,” enthused George Dow, a Santa Monica clothier who was returning to his favorite haunt for the first time. He stood at the top of a sloping emerald lawn, gazing over a distant leafy forest and beyond city rooftops to the glistening blue Pacific and boats docked at a marina. “They have turned this hotel into a world-class place.”

For decades, this romantic refuge was the American Riviera’s gem, a collection of California Craftsman and Mission style bungalows tucked below the Santa Ynez Mountains on a lush hillside framed by magnificent eucalyptus trees planted in the 1870s. Locals and other former patrons, who have been flocking back, were initially concerned when luxury hotelier Orient-Express purchased the property in 2004 and then shut its doors for renovation. But the company, while creating a high-end “new,” also took care to retain the “old” — to retrofit El Encanto’s sentimental centerpiece, the 1918-built, wisteria-lined, redbrick arbor that surrounds the original lily pond (together the photogenic site of nearly 100 years of weddings and celebrations), every brick was numbered when the arbor’s 40 columns were dismantled so they could be reassembled in the exact place.

The flower-encircled coin-filled wishing well remains, supposedly the inspiration for the 1936 Rogers and Hart song “There’s a Small Hotel” after the legendary musical duo bunked here. Other VIPs said to have stayed at El Encanto (which means “The Enchanted”) include Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Carole Lombard with Gable, Hedy Lamarr, Sharon Stone and Michael Douglas.

But there’s more than Hollywood history. The original hotel consisted of a handful of cottages erected in 1913 as dorms for college students. Other units were eventually added, including what is now a lengthy bungalow encompassing a row of suites — it’s believed to have been Santa Barbara’s first motel.

Now extensively upgraded, the 92 bungalows have private patios through French doors, ocean or garden views and sometimes fireplaces, all the more reason to slap on the do-not-disturb door hanger that winks, “Enjoying An Enchanted Moment.”